Tapir Talk Archives

3 May 1997

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    ___  __                   Digest 3 May 1997
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       \  \ \  \__  \ \       The Tapir Preservation Fund
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              http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/
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Return-Path: 
X-Sender: kane99@earthlink.net
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 13:17:57 -0700
To: Tapir 
From: Michael Kane 
Subject: Re: Tapir Talk Digest - 1 May 1997

Is there an FAQ or web document that newbies should know about?
  The tapirs in zoos topic interests me, as well as reintroduction efforts.
I'm not aware of government or Nature Conservancy type projects in South
America so I'm curious if there has been a strong interest in habitat
protection by governmental officials, outsiders, or indigenous people?
   "Whose da friends?!" in other words.  Best wishes to all of you,
and to the tapirs.  Mike K.
>
>

==============================

Return-Path: 
Date: Sat, 03 May 1997 09:23:17 -0300
From: luiz@techno.com.br (Luiz Antonio Pires)
To: tapir@tapirback.com
Subject: Tapir TalK

CAPTIVE TAPIRS IN BRAZILIAN ZOOS

  Year     Number of Zoos     Births     Deaths     Total 

1.991 ....... 25 ............. 14 ........ 9 ........ 44/37/4

1.992 ....... 37 ............. 12 ........ 8 ........ 57/59/4

1.993 ....... 31 ............. 10 ........ 12 ....... 46/50/3

1.994 ....... 37 ............. 19 ........ 20 ....... 48/52/4

1.995 ....... 36 ............. 12 ........ 8 ........ 48/55/2

1.996 .............. only in june.


In Brazil has approximately 120 Zoos, but some 30% retort the census.

Luiz Pires
Director of BAURU/ZOO

==============================

Return-Path: 
Date: Sat, 03 May 1997 12:00:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: LEONARDO SALAS 
Subject: Re: Tapir Talk Digest - 2 May 1997
To: tapir@tapirback.com (Tapir)

Hi there,

I write to share my enthusiasm about this e-mail list. I am most 
pleased to read that such an heterogeneous group of people 
participates in this list, and want to add my words of recognition 
to Sheryl for keeping this rolling.

There are lowland tapirs in several zoos in Venezuela. In one zoo, 
they are so succesful at breeding in captivity that the managers 
provide other zoos with animals. A few years ago I saw offsprings 
of captive bred animals in two: Parque Zoologico de Las Delicias, 
en Maracay (the very succesful one), and Parque Zoologico de 
Paraguana (a small but very beautiful zoo funded by a Venezuelan 
oil company; the real name of the zoo is the name of an oil 
businessman - I don't remember it).

I don't know if there is such a thing as a Web site where anyone 
can search for a list of zoos that have tapirs in Venezuela (like 
the one AAZPA has). I don't know if anyone ever compiled a list of
animals kept in zoos in my country, and if they did, if the update 
if frequently. The best place to start is to contact PROFAUNA 
or INPARQUES, both autonomous goverment institutes. I don't have 
phone #'s or names offhand (sorry). I would do a search combining 
these names with "Venezuela".

All best
Leo Salas

==============================

Return-Path: 
X-Sender: tapir@tapirback.com
To: Tapir 
From: Tapir 
Subject: Tapir Talk - response to May 2 Digest
Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 13:50:21 -0600

Hello tapir group:

Morty, Thanks for your generous offer for translating. One of my goals has
been to expand the Tapir Gallery beyond English.

To those who wrote about resources: I appreciate the information given by
several list members regarding captive populations of T. terrestris in South
America, and contacts for groups about these areas, especially as I was not
aware of some of these sources. Fauna Interest Groups are a great resource
and can be found here:

http://www.aza.org/aza/advisory.html

Andy Markley wrote:
>Greetings to all on the TapirTalk list, and congratulations to Tapirback

Thanks, Andy. I really hope that with higher visibility, more people will be
concerned with the conservation of these animals. I have to mention
something very exciting that happened a few days ago. I received a check for
$125.00 from a 9th grade Biology class in Colombia. The students had found
the mountain tapir section on the Tapir Gallery, had been moved by the fact
that these animals (about which they had known next to nothing) were
disappearing from their country. They did reports, educated their school,
had two bake sales and sold pins calling for the conservation of mountain
tapirs. The students really got behind this and sent $125.00 to be applied
to mountain tapir conservation. I've forwarded the money to a conservation
project, and it will probably pay most of one month's salary for an
Ecuadorean who is continuing Craig Downer's work in his absence (his entire
salary is $150.00 per month, and I'm going to try to continue funding this
through the Web site if he doen't come up with other funding). Education is
the main aspect of his work, but some radio-collaring may be done, also. 

(Just for the record, Tapirback is actually the name of a commercial
business started before the nonprofit. Tapirback is a name we liked, but the
company has nothing to do with animals; however, it does help support the
Tapir Preservation Fund's efforts until we can raise bigger funding, and TB
donates space for the web site.)

>Media coverage on the
>plight of tapirs is shameful

Well, I can tell you, I'd sure like to see a good documentary on the
Discovery channel  :) . . . make that *any* documentary on tapirs!

Tarcisio wrote:
>		I would like to know if the Tapir group has any kind of 
>financial support to research concerned with the aims of my master thesis 
>project.

Hello Tarcisio: Thanks for writing about your project. I am always
interested in finding out what work is being done with tapirs. It is one of
the goals of the Tapir Preservation Fund to be able to help with projects
like yours. Last year we were able to help fund a conservation effort for
the mountain tapir in Ecuador. We are in the midst of applying for Federal
Non-profit status in the U.S. When that's done we can attempt to get major
corporate funding. It may take most of a year or longer before we have any
significant funds to distribute, but I will write you privately about ways
we might be able to use the Tapir Gallery online to raise money for some
part of your project.

I've always wondered how a person would ratio-collar this species! Here is
what was written by Chris Wemmer in the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group
Newsletter (July 1991) about fitting collars to these animals:

*****
During our training course at the Sao Paulo Zoo in December 1988, we had the
opportunity to test the "radio-collar retention ability" of a couple of
captive Brasilian tapirs. Our collar, made by Telonics for white-tailed
deer, failed the test because the tapir's "tapered" neck. We did not cinch
the collars tightly for obvious reasons, but we thought that as in deer, the
ears and general body carriage would prevent the animal from dropping the
device. This wasn't the case: the collars were shed within a hour after
attachment! After two attempts, we carefully measured the neck and recorded
the cross-sectional dimensions. We are reasonably confident that a form
fitting collar could be constructed that would stay put.
*****

I don't know if they ever solved the problem, but I'd be interested in
hearing more about collaring this species.

For our new header, thanks to Werner Haberl, shrew expert: 
http://members.vienna.at/shrew/


Sheryl

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                 The Tapir Gallery    ~    Tapir Preservation Fund    
   http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/           tapir@tapirback.com 
        Co-Editor IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group Newsletter
 P.O. Box 1432, Palisade, CO 81526 USA       Fax (970) 464-0377
                 "Promoting the Welfare of Tapirs Everywhere"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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